Hinged cover container



March 24, 1964 J, H. CRATE 3,126,120

HINGED COVER CONTAINER Filed Dec. 18, 1962 INVENTOR JAMES HARVEY CRATEBY M ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,126,120 HINGE!) COVER CONTAINERJames Harvey Crate, New/town Square, Pa, assignor to E. I. du Pont deNernours and Company, Wilmington, DeL, a corporation of Delaware FiledDec. 18, 1962, Ser. No. 245,533 7 Claims. (Cl. 220-31) This inventionrelates to a container with a snap hinge, and especially to a case forcarrying bottled beverages such as beer with a sturdy snap hinge.

In the past, beverage cases have been formed from wood or cardboard.Such containers suffer from being sensitive to moisture, and beingabrasive to paper labels. The wooden cases require metal or other hingeswhich add to the cost of the case. While cardboard cases are formed withcovers in which the cardboard is merely folded to provide a hinge, suchhinges do not have a long life and are the weak point in the case. Smallcontainers have been made from plastics utilizing integrally formed snaphinges. However, such snap hinges when applied to large containers, havenot had suflicient strength, especially when applied to bottled beveragecases which are quite heavy and which it is often desired to lift thehinged cover as handles.

This invention has as an object, the provision of a beverage case whichis resistant to moisture. A further ob ject is to provide a beveragecase which, when loaded, can be lifted by the covers. A further objectis to provide a beverage case which will not abrade paper labels.

These and other objects are accomplished by molding a plastic beveragecase with a snap hinged cover assembly, which snap hinge runs the lengthof the joint between the cover and the case body. By utilizing the hingeof this invention the cover may be snapped onto the case body with casebut the hinge joint is very strong in the direction in which stress isnormally applied to the hinge.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the beverage case and its hinged covers;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the structure of the hinge-formingmembers;

FIG. 3 shows a partial section of the hinge-forming members assembled;

FIG. 4 is a cross-section of one of the hinge members, taken on line4-4- of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a cross-section of another of the hinge members, taken on line5-5 of FIG. 2.

The beverage case 1 of this invention has a pair of hinged covers 2, 3,and a body portion 4. The body portion 4, has compartments adapted toreceive bottles 9, formed by a series of length-wise walls 7 andcross-wise walls 8. Body portion 4, may have corrugations 10, so as tostifien the sides, which corrugations are preferably arranged as shownin FIG. 2, so as to cooperate with the hinge elements as well as providea stiffening of the body sides. The covers preferably have grippingopenings 11 and 12 to provide a convenient means to lift the case. Thehinge is formed by a series of pivot shafts 13 held in place by shaftsupports 14, which supports are preferably mounted on cover 2, althoughthey could alternatively be mounted on case body 4 if desired. The otherhalf of the hinge comprises two types of pivot shaft engaging means. Thefirst of these, means 15, wraps around the shaft and has an openingwhich faces parallel to and toward the case side and has pivot shaftengaging slide surface 16, inclined at an angle A of about 120 from theplane of the case wall, which slide surface 16 slides over one of thepivot shafts 13 when the case is snapped together with cover 2. Thesecond pivot shaft engaging means 17, seats the pivot shaft 13, and hasan opening which faces parallel to and away from the case side, and haspivot shaft engaging slide surface 18 inclined at an angle B of about 60from the plane of the case wall, which slide surface 13 slides over oneof the pivot shafts 13 when the case 4 is snapped together with cover 2.

The pivot shafts, and other hinge-forming elements are preferablyintegrally molded with the portion of the case to which they are rigidlyattached. The preferred material for forming the case and snap hinge ishigh density polyethylene having a density of about 0.97. Otherresilient molding resins may be used if desired. Such resins includeother polyethylenes, polypropylene, polyamides, polymethyl methacrylate,and acetal resins. The construction of the case particularly adapts itto carrying bottled liquids, primarily beer but including soft drinks,liquors, and cosmetics. The angles A and B of the shaft engaging slidefaces, are preferably 120 and 60 respectively, but may vary from 105 to135 and from 45 to respectively.

I claim:

1. A snap hinge construction comprising a first portion of said hingecomprising a plurality of axially aligned pivot shaft segments supportedon a series of support means mounted on a single supporting member, anda' second portion of said hinge comprising a series of two types ofpivot shaft engaging members on a single supporting member, the first ofsaid types of pivot shaft engaging members comprising a portion whichextends from said supporting member and wraps around the pivot shaft toform an opening of about 180 degrees facing in the direction of andsubstantially parallel to said supporting member, and has theWrap-around portion terminate in a plane disposed at from to degreesfrom the plane of the support, the second of said types of pivot shaftengaging members comprising an extension of the support substantiallyparallel with the support and a protruding member terminating in a planedisposed at from 45 to 75 degrees from the plane of said supportingmember, said supporting member being corrugated adjacent said pivotshaft engaging means, the corrugations being of the same width as andcoextensive with said pivot shaft engaging means.

2. A case comprising a body portion having upstanding walls and at leastone cover hingedly mounted on one of said walls, said cover havingmounted thereon a plurality of axially aligned pivot shafts, said pivotshafts being engaged by a series of two types of pivot shaft engagingmembers mounted on said wall, the first of said types of pivot shaftengaging members comprising a portion which extends from said wall andwraps about degrees around the pivot shaft to form an opening of about180 degrees facing in the direction of and substantially parallel tosaid wall, and has the wrap-around portion terminate in a plane disposedat from 105 to 135 degrees from the plane of said wall, the second ofsaid types of pivot shaft engaging members comprising an extension ofsaid wall substantially parallel with said wall and a protruding memberdefining an opening of about 180 degrees facing away from said Wall,said protruding member terminating in a plane disposed at from 45 to 75degrees from the plane of said wall, said wall being corrugated adjacentsaid pivot shaft engaging means, the corrugations being of the samewidth as and coextensive with said pivot shaft engaging means.

3. The case of claim 2 wherein the terminal planes of the pivot shaftengaging members face toward the high density polyethylene having adensity of about 0.97.

inside of the case. 7. The ease of claim 5 wherein the body portion has4. The hinge construction of claim 1 wherein the pivot compartmentsadapted to receive bottles. iz g iz g i g ggf membars 5 References Citedin the file of this patent 5. The case of claim 2 wherein the bodyportion and UNITED STATES PATENTS pivot shaft engaging members areformed of a resilient 2,537,450 Yates M 5, 1953 molding 2,711,050McIntyre June 21, 1955 6. The case of claim 5 wherein the molding resinis 2,797,840 Gibbs July 2, 1957

1. A SNAP HINGE CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A FIRST PORTION OF SAID HINGECOMPRISING A PLURALITY OF AXIALLAY ALIGNED PIVOT SHAFT SEGMENTSSUPPORTED ON A SERIES OF SUPPORT MEANS MOUNTED ON A SINGLE SUPPORTINGMEMBER, AND A SECOND PORTION OF SAID HINGE COMPRISING A SERIES OF TWOTYPES OF PIVOT SHAFT ENGAGING MEMBERS ON A SINGLE SUPPORTING MEMBER, THEFIRST OF SAID TYPES OF PIVOT SHAFT ENGAGING MEMBERS COMPRISING A PORTIONWHICH EXTENDS FROM SAID SUPPORTING MEMBER AND WRAPS AROUND THE PIVOTSHAFT TO FORM AN OPENING OF ABOUT 180 DEGREES FACING IN THE DIRECTION OFAND SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID SUPPORTING MEMBER, AND HAS THEWRAP-AROUND PORTION TERMINATE IN A PLANE DISPOSED AT FROM 105 TO 135DEGREES FROM THE PLANE OF THE SUPPORT, THE SECOND OF SAID TYPES OF PIVOTSHAFT ENGAGING MEMBERS COMPRISING AN EXTENSION OF THE SUPPORTSUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL WITH THE SUPPORT AND A PROTRUDING MEMBERTERMINATING IN A PLANE DISPOSED AT FROM 45 TO 75 DEGREES FROM THE PLANEOF SAID SUPPORTING MEMBER, SAID SUPPORTING MEMBER BEING CORRUGATEDADJACENT SAID PIVOT SHAFT ENGAGING MEANS, THE CORRUGATIONS BEING OF THESAME WIDTH AS AND COEXTENSIVE WITH SAID PIVOT SHAFT ENGAGING MEANS.